jmt57
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It is way past time for the NFL to stop using roman numerals. It is a ridiculous tradition that was originally put in place when baseball was still the national pastime, used to market and hype the game as being über importante in comparison to the world series and other championships.
When it was first used for Super Bowl V - the first championship after the two leagues merged into the AFC and NFC - perhaps the thought process was that 'we need to play this up, since this is all one league now', and not let the novelty and emotional rivalry of the NFL vs AFL dissipate.
But even back then, the brain didn't translate roman numerals into english beyond what old clocks on the walls showed, XII. Now that decades have gone by, the mental gyrations one has to go through to translate a roman numeral into a year has become a pointless farcical exercise, born out of a vain attempt to make game some sort of earth-shattering event, when in reality it nothing more than an arrogant advertising gimmick.
Quick, what season relates to Super Bowl XVIII or XXIX?
The whole process of deciphering has become equivalent to a Rube Goldberg machine.
1.) Translate roman numerals to english. Don't forget that based on the sequence of the characters that sometimes you are adding and other times you are subtracting. So XVIII = 10+5+1+1+1=18, and XXIX becomes 10+10+(-1+10)=10+10+9=29.
2.) Now think of a benchmark to translate to a year. Was the first (retroactively named) super bowl in '66, '67, '68? Most won't know off the top of their head, so it needs to be something they personally remember. (Too bad this approach won't work for fans of the Browns, Lions, Jaguars, etc.). So for a Chargers fan, they think of their last visit, Super Bowl XXIX. Game was played in 1995, corresponding to the 1994 season (another problem right there).
3.) So first we translate the roman numerals, this is now 29. Now somebody talks about another super bowl, say XXXVIII, for example. We go through the translation process again (10+10+10+5+1+1+1=38).
4.) Now subtract: 38-29=9.
5.) Add 9 onto the year the Charger fan remembers ('94 season, game played in '95), so 1994+9=2003.
With so many processes in place, most people are either going to time out, or make a math error.
Just call whatever current roman numeral is being used the 2025 Super Bowl. Even though it refers to the 2024 season, it's still a vast improvement.
Or call it '2425', if you want to reference both the season as well as the year the game is actually played.
"2425" has a more dominant, majestic feel to it, so that may be more acceptable to the suits at 345 Park Avenue that want to hype the game more than ever before, on an annual basis.
/rant
When it was first used for Super Bowl V - the first championship after the two leagues merged into the AFC and NFC - perhaps the thought process was that 'we need to play this up, since this is all one league now', and not let the novelty and emotional rivalry of the NFL vs AFL dissipate.
But even back then, the brain didn't translate roman numerals into english beyond what old clocks on the walls showed, XII. Now that decades have gone by, the mental gyrations one has to go through to translate a roman numeral into a year has become a pointless farcical exercise, born out of a vain attempt to make game some sort of earth-shattering event, when in reality it nothing more than an arrogant advertising gimmick.
Quick, what season relates to Super Bowl XVIII or XXIX?
The whole process of deciphering has become equivalent to a Rube Goldberg machine.
1.) Translate roman numerals to english. Don't forget that based on the sequence of the characters that sometimes you are adding and other times you are subtracting. So XVIII = 10+5+1+1+1=18, and XXIX becomes 10+10+(-1+10)=10+10+9=29.
2.) Now think of a benchmark to translate to a year. Was the first (retroactively named) super bowl in '66, '67, '68? Most won't know off the top of their head, so it needs to be something they personally remember. (Too bad this approach won't work for fans of the Browns, Lions, Jaguars, etc.). So for a Chargers fan, they think of their last visit, Super Bowl XXIX. Game was played in 1995, corresponding to the 1994 season (another problem right there).
3.) So first we translate the roman numerals, this is now 29. Now somebody talks about another super bowl, say XXXVIII, for example. We go through the translation process again (10+10+10+5+1+1+1=38).
4.) Now subtract: 38-29=9.
5.) Add 9 onto the year the Charger fan remembers ('94 season, game played in '95), so 1994+9=2003.
With so many processes in place, most people are either going to time out, or make a math error.
Just call whatever current roman numeral is being used the 2025 Super Bowl. Even though it refers to the 2024 season, it's still a vast improvement.
Or call it '2425', if you want to reference both the season as well as the year the game is actually played.
"2425" has a more dominant, majestic feel to it, so that may be more acceptable to the suits at 345 Park Avenue that want to hype the game more than ever before, on an annual basis.
/rant
